Risk Mitigation & Recommendation

a. Risk Mitigation 
1. Adaptation process should be conducted prior to releasement to ensure that the eels are prepared enough to be released in new environment. This adaptation process includes 2 activities: food adaptation and environmental acclimatization.

a. Food adaptation process may take 1-3 weeks, where evaluation should be conducted weekly. Natural foods (e.g. worms) can be given to the eels proportionally to allow them to adapt with new type of foods.
b. Environmental acclimatization should be done in the targeted river. This process should be done for minimum of three days inside the ‘haba’. Eels should be fed with natural food (worms, small crabs, etc.) during this process.

2. Tagging process should be conducted in a controlled environment with adequate supporting facilities to minimize infection or other side effects from tagging. BBI Tonjong is a suitable location for this.

3. Regular community empowerment is needed to maintain local participation and monitor the stocking progress.

4. Stocking can be conducted during wet season to minimize water quality related issues (e.g. high salinity, low water level, etc.)

b. Recommendation
Based on the result of field assessment in Sukabumi District, there are 9 points of recommendations:
1. Sengke, located in Cikaso River, is the most suitable location for eel stocking.

2. For environmental adjustment process, ‘haba’ (enclosed area which is bordered by fish net) should be built near the stocking site. In Sengke, haba can be built near the dock in Cikaso River. Locals can be asked to monitor the eels during the adjustment process.

3. Considering the request from the Fisheries Office and fisher communities in Sukabumi to conduct stocking in Cimandiri River, it can be facilitated by choosing Kp. Cikadu as secondary releasing site. This location, although is not as good as Sengke, still can provide adequate environment for eels. Therefore, if the allocated number of ells is large enough, stocking can be conducted in two locations by dividing the total numbers allocation in certain proportions. However, if the number of allocated eels is relatively small, Sengke can be prioritized for the first stocking, while Kp. Cikadu can be chosen for the second batch.

4. Tagging is essentially needed for eel monitoring and evaluation process. In Sukabumi, tagging process can be conducted in BBI Tonjong, where supporting facilities and controlled environment are available and accessible. Furthermore, the location of BBI is relatively close to Sengke and Kp. CIkadu to provide efficiency during the stocking event.

5. Additionally, BBI Tonjong can be used for temporary shelter for the eels, particularlyif these eels come from far (e.g. if PT. Iroha from East Java wants to contribute in stocking). This facility allows the eels to recover from exhaustion due to long travel time. Moreover, BBI Tonjong is a suitable place to conduct food acclimatization process (from artificial to natural food).

6. Community empowerment can be organized regularly by IFish though their monthly activity in Sukabumi District. During this process, responsible community representatives will be encouraged to present and discuss monthly progress of post-stocking phase.

7. To improve community participation in the post-stocking phase, merchandises (e.g. shirts) can be provided as reward if a local find a tagged eel (after one-month period since stocking event) and report it to the Fisheries Office. This effort also allows IFish and Fisheries Office to collect monitoring data without conducting direct monitoring assessment. A reporting mechanism should be established in to support this plan, so fishers know how to report if they accidently catch a tagged eel.

8. Stocking event can be conducted during wet season, where the water level in the river is high enough.

9. Since fishers specifically targeted glass-eel, monitoring process will be unlikely to be conducted through fisher’s production data only. Thus, a specific monitoring assessment by experts may be necessary in order to measure the successfulness of the stocking effort. 

c. Follow-up Action
1. Eel preparation (whether using eels from IFish demonstration site in Sukabumi or provided by private companies)
2. Preparation and implementation of community engagement
3. Preparation and implementation of food acclimatization
4. Preparation and implementation of eel tagging
5. Establishment of reporting mechanism